Starbook

• About the Author
  
• By the Same Author
  
• Title Page
  
• Copyright Page
  
• Dedication
  
• Acknowledgements
  
• Book One THE PRINCE
  
  • CHAPTER ONE
    
  • CHAPTER TWO
    
  • CHAPTER THREE
    
  • CHAPTER FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER SIX
    
  • CHAPTER SEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER EIGHT
    
  • CHAPTER NINE
    
  • CHAPTER TEN
    
  • CHAPTER ELEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER TWELVE
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER NINETEEN
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
    
• Book Two THE MASTER ARTISTS
  
  • Part One
    
    • CHAPTER ONE
      
    • CHAPTER TWO
      
    • CHAPTER THREE
      
    • CHAPTER FOUR
      
    • CHAPTER FIVE
      
    • CHAPTER SIX
      
    • CHAPTER SEVEN
      
    • CHAPTER EIGHT
      
    • CHAPTER NINE
      
    • CHAPTER TEN
      
    • CHAPTER ELEVEN
      
    • CHAPTER TWELVE
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTEEN
      
    • CHAPTER FOURTEEN
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTEEN
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTEEN
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
      
    • CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
      
    • CHAPTER NINETEEN
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY
      
  • Part Two
    
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–ONE
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–TWO
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–THREE
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–FOUR
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–FIVE
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–SIX
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–SEVEN
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–EIGHT
      
    • CHAPTER TWENTY–NINE
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY–ONE
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY–TWO
      
  • Part Three
    
    • CHAPTER THIRTY–THREE
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY–FOUR
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY–FIVE
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY–SIX
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY–EIGHT
      
    • CHAPTER THIRTY–NINE
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY–ONE
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY–TWO
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY–THREE
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY–FIVE
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY–SIX
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY–SEVEN
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY–EIGHT
      
    • CHAPTER FORTY–NINE
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–ONE
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–TWO
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–THREE
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–FOUR
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–FIVE
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–SIX
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–SEVEN
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–EIGHT
      
    • CHAPTER FIFTY–NINE
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–ONE
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–TWO
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–THREE
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–FOUR
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–FIVE
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–SIX
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–SEVEN
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–EIGHT
      
    • CHAPTER SIXTY–NINE
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY–ONE
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY–TWO
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY–THREE
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY–FOUR
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY–FIVE
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY–SIX
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
      
    • CHAPTER SEVENTY–EIGHT
      
• Book Three THE WHITE WIND
  
  • CHAPTER ONE
    
  • CHAPTER TWO
    
  • CHAPTER THREE
    
  • CHAPTER FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER SIX
    
  • CHAPTER SEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER EIGHT
    
  • CHAPTER NINE
    
  • CHAPTER TEN
    
  • CHAPTER ELEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER TWELVE
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER NINETEEN
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–ONE
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–TWO
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–THREE
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–SIX
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–SEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–EIGHT
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–NINE
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY–ONE
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY–TWO
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY–FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY–FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY–SIX
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY–SEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY–EIGHT
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTY–NINE
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–ONE
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–TWO
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–THREE
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–SIX
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–SEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–EIGHT
    
  • CHAPTER FORTY–NINE
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–ONE
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–TWO
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–THREE
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–SIX
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–SEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–EIGHT
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTY–NINE
    
  • CHAPTER–SIXTY
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY–ONE
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY–TWO
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY–THREE
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY–FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY–FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY–SIX
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTY–NINE
    
  • CHAPTER–SEVENTY
    
  • CHAPTER SEVENTY–ONE
    
  • CHAPTER SEVENTY–TWO
    
  • CHAPTER SEVENTY–THREE
    
  • CHAPTER SEVENTY–FOUR
    
• Book Four THE ALCHEMY OF ALL THINGS
  
  • CHAPTER ONE
    
  • CHAPTER TWO
    
  • CHAPTER THREE
    
  • CHAPTER FOUR
    
  • CHAPTER FIVE
    
  • CHAPTER SIX
    
  • CHAPTER SEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER EIGHT
    
  • CHAPTER NINE
    
  • CHAPTER TEN
    
  • CHAPTER ELEVEN
    
  • CHAPTER TWELVE
    
  • CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER SIXTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
    
  • CHAPTER NINETEEN
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–ONE
    
  • CHAPTER TWENTY–TWO
    

'A book that consistently operates on many levels of meaning, its apparent simplicity, in fact, part of a rich fabric of symbol, echo and allusion...Okri loves paradox, one of the striking affinities he has with Blake, and uses words to point at the hidden, the space where the sacred lives and breathes...The intrusion of humanity's inhumanity anchors the metaphysical lyricism of the book, creatively chills its enchanted air, reminds us that all the best fairy tales hold a mirror up to the darkness of the world...But it is the imaginative generosity and peculiar purity of the writing that continually touch the heart. Here is a prose with a tender tread, alive to human frailty...[Okri] seduces the reader with a rapt recounting of the infinite within the particular'
Observer

'The language of [Okri's] story is simple, courtly, timeless, childlike, beautiful...What he has created, however, is a unique and beguiling world of his own imagining'
Sunday Herald

'Building phrase upon rich phrase, Okri sweeps across the whole of the mythical world he creates, yet manages, too, to hold before the reader's gaze, steadily, moment by moment, each small fragment of this reality...Welling up through this book is a sense of the sheer mystery of life, of story, of beginnings and endings... Each phrase is pregnant with possibility and magic'
London Magazine

'Each sentence is like a magical capsule breaking open with a burst of coloured light'
Books Quarterly

'Okri's prose carries off a remarkably difficult balancing act in which reality is transfigured into a prose that aspires to be poetry...like many of Okri's books it's hard to describe because of the rich, dreamlike, almost hallucinatory prose'
The Sunday Times
(Scottish edition)

'This is quite, simply, a beautiful book...one that reminds us why we are all so special'
Irish World

'Readers who loved
The Famished Road,
which won the Booker Prize, will fall on it avidly...Okri's is an art that sometimes communicates before it is understood. It echoes the Bible in it conundrums. It rhymes like Shakespeare in its couplets. It often evokes Judaism's Book of Life. And like the New Testament, it advocates that salvation stems from pure love'
Scotsman

'This long-awaited novel from the author of
The Famished Road
is a bewitching story, at once old-fashioned fairy tale and modern exploration of human experience...Lyrical and intensely imaginative'
Good Book Guide

'This most simple of plots belies the extraordinary messages and hidden meanings waiting to be extracted from Okri's text...a profound philosophical meditation... this book pushes the experience of reading far beyond any usual boundaries ... passionate, moving and intense'
Scotland on Sunday

'
Starbook
is the book [Okri] has waited all his life to write, the completion of a story his mother began to tell him as a child...Okri considers the infection and destruction of a culture in such a way that it becomes clearly the province of art and not of history books to do so'
Yorkshire Post

'At the centre of this novel – as it has been in many of [Okri's] novels – is the noble attempt to find the Good, the starting engine for recovery and progress, and the role of the artist, the storyteller, and the imagination in the process'
Glasgow Herald

'Part mythical romance, part an exploration of freedom and regeneration, this is a rich tale with complex themes'
Psychologies

'Visionary, Utopian and magical'
Western Daily Press

'As ever with Okri, there are passages of incredible beauty'
Financial Times

Ben Okri has published eight novels, including
The Famished Road,
for which he won the Booker Prize. He has also written collections of poetry, short stories and essays, and his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and he has been awarded the OBE as well as numerous international prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa, the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction and the Chianti Rufino-Antico Fattore. He is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN and was presented with a Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. He was born in Nigeria and lives in London.

Other books by Ben Okri:

Fiction
Flowers and Shadows
The Landscapes Within
Incidents at the Shrine
Stars of the New Curfew
The Famished Road
Songs of Enchantment
Astonishing the Gods
Dangerous Love
Infinite Riches
In Arcadia

Non-Fiction
Birds of Heaven
A Way of Being Free

Poetry
An African Elegy
Mental Fight

STARBOOK

A MAGICAL TALE OF LOVE
AND REGENERATION

BEN OKRI